


Hearts Don't Break Around Here

by wekingsandprettythings



Series: Perfect AU [2]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alcohol, Drinking, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, M/M, Marriage, Mild Smut, Phanfiction, Smut, Swearing, Teacher Dan, Wedding, a year in the life, youtuber Phil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-02
Updated: 2017-04-02
Packaged: 2018-10-13 04:44:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10506543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wekingsandprettythings/pseuds/wekingsandprettythings
Summary: This is the man I get to spend the rest of my life with. The man I get to wake up to every morning, and go to sleep with every night. We’re going to raise a family together, and we’re going to live a happy, long, eventful life together. - The sequel to A Perfect Combination, following the year leading up to the Lester wedding.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I can't believe how well A Perfect Combination is doing! Honestly I did not expect I'd be ever be making a fic this big! thank you so much and I really hope you enjoy this <3

January

After the engagement Phil and I decided we wouldn’t start planning until after Christmas. This way we could go to both our parents’ places, celebrate, and have a good time without stressing about what type of font we would won’t on our invitations.

Christmas at Phil’s parents place was amazing. They have this huge house up in Manchester that they invited us to for Christmas Day. My parents weren’t too happy that this was the first Christmas I wasn’t spending with them but it’s something they are going to have to get used to.

Phil and I brought some presents for each other for the actual day as well as presents for his family. We decided to leave one personal present to each other at home to open once we got back, this way we could have something special between the two of us.

Lester family tradition was to play scrabble the night before, wear matching PJ’s and sit around the fire until midnight. Then Phil’s mum made us all go to sleep so “Santa” could set up our presents. To my surprise they had all gotten me a present and I was starting to really feel like a Lester.

Then we went to my parents place for Christmas number 2 on New Year’s Day. It was the most awkward thing that had ever happened. The night before Phil and I brought in the new year in his side of the house where no one could hear us. That resulted in me not being able to sit comfortably in my parent’s hard wooden chairs and my brother laughing at me every time I repositioned myself.

My parents were pretty quiet about the whole wedding thing. They asked if we had a date picked yet, which we didn’t and then they didn’t bring it up again. They haven’t been very happy about my liking of men but they are still somewhat supportive. Like they don’t want me to like men but because they love me they have gotten over it.

Luckily our home was only a 45 minute train ride from my parent’s place, meaning we could go home after dinner. The house was cold when we got back. It had been 7 days with the heat turned off and no sign of life, and it felt like it.

I have been waiting all week to finally give Phil his Christmas present, but it wasn’t here. He is with Louise while we were away and Phil has no idea what’s about to happen. And I also have no idea what he’s about to give me. The other presents we gave each other were candles and t-shirts and we haven’t given each other any hints as to what our big presents are.

I texted Louise when we pulled into our laneway to tell her we were home, and she was on her way with Phil’s special little present.

“Do you want to exchange gifts now?” I asked him.

“Yeah, one sec I’m going to go get it.” He said and left the room. When he came back into the room with a small box, it looked like one that you would put a small necklace or bracelet in.

He gave it to me with a big smile on his face, and I am genuinely confused because he knows I don’t wear jewelry, besides my engagement ring, so I honestly don’t know what to expect.

Inside the box was two golden keys on a key ring with a piece of paper folded up. I looked at him with a face that said “what in the holy fuck are you doing”. The paper has an address on it.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me Lester?!” my mouth was left agape.

“I saw you shared that nice house on Facebook, and I took Martyn to go check it out last month to see what it was like.” Phil said, grabbing my hands to calm me down, “and it was beautiful so I bought it.”

“Oh my gosh, we can finally leave this tiny little apartment!” I shouted and gave him a big hug. “Only problem is all my hard negotiating with the landlord is going to go to shit now.”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Well the gift I got for you was actually against my rent agreement, so I had to beg Peter to let me get it for you, and they’ll be here in a few minutes.”

Phil started to tear up, which is scary because he never cries. The only time he cried was when we first said “I love you” to each other and we had a good heart to heart about finally finding our soulmates.

He wipes the tear from his eyes, “you got me a puppy?”

I nodded, “Louise is bringing him over here. He’s a Welsh Pembroke Corgi and I’ve named him Temmie because I know how much you loved Undertale last year.”

“And all those times I thought you weren’t listening to me rant about Undertale you actually were listening.” He hugged me.

“Of course I was you spoon.” And there we sat in the lounge hugging until there was a knock at the door. Phil pulled away and looked like a little kid on Christmas morning, even though he was 30.

I opened the door and in stormed a clumsy little puppy, running around our feet and sniffing everything new. Phil sat down on the floor with tears streaming down his face. He’s wanted a puppy since he was a little kid, now he’s a grown man and I can’t wait to raise this little fur ball with him.

All Phil can manage to say his “hi Temmie, hi how are you? Oh my gosh you’re so little” but the little sounded more like widdle, he’s talking to the dog the way I talk to newborn babies.

That night the three of us cuddled into our bed as a happy family. The first of many nights like this.

“So it’s technically January which means we have to pick a date if we want to stay on track with planning.” I’m a bit excited to start the journey to getting married.

“I was thinking October.” He says without hesitation.

“Want to do it on the 19th cause then it will be exactly 1 year since we got engaged?”

“I was actually thinking October 2nd. It just has a special feel to it.” I can’t help but smile. He’s been thinking of this just as much as I have.

“You know, it does. I can see us celebrating every year on October 2nd, it already feels special.” He kisses me, and then Temmie comes up to lick him on the face. This is going to be a wild ride.

-

When we first got engaged Louise dug out all the wedding planning books and magazines from her first marriage, making me promise to give them back later because she had a feeling this new guy she was seeing might be around for a long time.

The first steps on the list were to pick a date (check), get a venue for the ceremony and reception, and register the marriage. This was all supposed to happen a year before the wedding, but seeing as October is 9 and a half months away we have to start cracking now.

As I work on the weekdays, I’ve left Phil to scout out some nice places in London for us. He’s been going everywhere with his sister-in-law Cornelia so she can help him make decisions. We felt that because she had gone through this process already she would know what to do. So far Phil has picked 3 different places that could be our perfect spot.

We have envisioned an indoor wedding at a venue that we can have both the ceremony and the reception in, with nice lighting and a big enough area for dancing and socializing. The three places Phil has picked are gay friendly (thank fuck) and from the photos he’s shown me they are breathtaking.

All three venues work with the Islington town hall, meaning we can have the ceremony there and then travel to the reception. I have my heart set on a place called the Brewery as it is beautiful and they can cater the whole event.

The town hall is only open for viewing on Saturdays at 9am, which is what we’re doing today. We can also register the wedding here, kill two birds with one stone and all that.

The hall is beautiful, the room in which the ceremony will take place is cheap and minimally decorated like I wanted. There are enough seats for our roughly 200 guests and they have no problem with us having a dog involved. We can check ceremony and registering the wedding off the list. 

Next I drag Phil to the Brewery again. It’s absolutely stunning here; some walls are white, some have brick, there are rafters on the ceiling that have lights hung from them, and then larger lights above that can be set to any color. There is so much space here and the cost of the venue includes all the decorations, which you can choose from in their ‘themes book’, I’m completely sold on this venue, and I think Phil is too.

Out budget for the wedding is £5,000, all of which Phil and I have set aside in a savings account. The venue fits our budget and the look we were going for. Eventually I get Phil to agree and January’s checklist is completed.

“So Martyn and Cornelia want us to go to their place to celebrate my birthday early.” Phil mentions in the Uber on the way home.

I’ve completely forgot that his birthday is coming up next week. With all the wedding and slowly starting to pack to move next month. “That sounds fun, what day?”

“Tomorrow night if that’s okay, I know we’ve been busy lately.” His hand is resting on my knee, like it has been every time we’ve sat close together over the last 10 months.

“Tomorrow sounds good, thank god it’s not at our place though because I think I’ve almost packed the whole kitchen up.”

“I know, I could hardly find any bowls for my cereal this morning.” He jokes.

“You mean my cereal?” I questioned, raising an eyebrow at him. His belly laugh is enough to make the driver smile, I can see him in the rearview mirror, and Phil has that effect on everyone.

Our night consisted of packing and reminiscing on memories that are attached to all our things. I’ve been saying “our” a lot lately. Most the stuff in this apartment started off as mine or his at one point, but slowly it’s all merged to being ours and that thought alone brings a warm feeling through my body.

-

Phil mentioned that his brother had a big surprise for him at dinner tonight. It’s probably some nerd related item or new clothes but Phil is super excited. He thinks Cornelia is pregnant, but I don’t think so. Why would they use Phil’s birthday to announce that they are having a baby?

But sure enough, Phil knows everything. We’re all sitting around the dinner table having desert when they bring out 2 gifts for Phil. The first gift is a bunch of hufflepuff themed things for the office in our new house. The second is a small box.

Inside said box is a plain white t-shirt that reads “AmazingUncle” and Phil breaks out in tears. His brother is going to be a wonderful father, and one day hopefully Phil will be too. 

February 

February’s checklist seemed fairly simple; hire all the people needed to make the wedding special. We needed a photographer and videographer, a florist, a DJ, someone to make the cake, and a piano player for the ceremony. And what type of food we would have at the reception. Sounds simple enough.

The meal for the reception was the first thing we decided on, we wanted pizza. But not just any pizza, we wanted a pizza bar with a bunch of types. And it wasn’t going to be the main meal, we thought it would be a good 11pm snack after everyone had gotten drunk and danced their hearts out.

The actual meal for the night is going to be a Sunday Roast. The Brewery said they could do it, and it was a common request for October weddings anyway. Phil suggested it because it was his favorite meal his mum makes, I’ve had it a few times and it is pretty amazing. Hopefully the caterer makes it as well as good old Cath does.

With Phil being a YouTuber he actually knew quite a lot of people who could do all these things. I promised my brother he could do the Photos at our wedding as he is going to school for it, and Phil asked his friend Will if he would make our wedding video.

One of the perks of being a teacher is knowing what all the other faculty and parents do for a living. Little Derek, who helped with the engagement, has a mother who is a florist and she has agreed to do all our flowers for the wedding. And then I have a friend Dodie who is the music teacher at St. Mary’s who has offered to play the piano at the ceremony.

The only thing that took a long time to find was a DJ. We didn’t want someone who only played new age music or someone who only played old songs. In the end we thought why not make our own wedding playlist on Spotify and have Martyn control it? He’s good at that sort of thing.

Phil also knows a YouTuber from LA named Rosanna who is willing to come out and make whatever cake we want for the day. Phil doesn’t care what it looks like as long as it involves chocolate, and I’m torn between making it cute and dorky. 

February’s checklist was done by Valentine’s Day, which was also the day we moved.  
The house is so beautiful! I want to scream about it! Which I can actually do now without getting yelled at by the neighbors!

Everything is white. Just like the walls from the apartment, but here I can change that. There are floor to ceiling windows that I just want to rub my body against I love them so much. The main hall connects to the Lounge, with then connects to the dining room, where there is a half wall that connects to the kitchen.

We have another chandelier in the dining room, and a breakfast bar in the kitchen. Phil said his old apartment had one as well and it was his favorite part. My favorite part of this house however is the 4 bedrooms and bathrooms! I also have a walk in closet that can hold all my clothes unlike the small closet I had in the apartment and the 3 dressers full of clothes.

I plan on making the home feel modern but still have our dorky twist to it. I want grey couches and black accent furniture, accents of color everywhere and all our trinkets, plushies, and figurines displayed like they used to be.

It takes one moving van to bring everything and about a million trips in and out of the door to bring everything in. I mean we downsized a lot and yet we still have a metric shit ton of things.

The most important thing we needed to get off the truck and set up was the bed. We left the old bed frame at the apartment because it was shit, and had another one shipped to the new house. Over the last month while we’ve been getting ready to move we actually bought a lot of furniture and had it sent right to the new place.

Martyn, Phil and myself unloaded what felt like a million boxes while Cornelia sat on the couch and watched. She offered to help but with her being pregnant and all we didn’t want her doing any lifting.

Once we got all the kitchen boxes in however, she made it her job to organize it. The kitchen was huge. There were 2 ovens for fuck sakes, like who needs two ovens? The kitchen is so beautiful though. With its black cabinets and marble countertops and stainless steel appliances. It’s simply orgasmic.

By 8 pm we had all the boxes in the house and moved the rooms they corresponded with. Cornelia had completely unpacked the kitchen which came in handy when we ordered pizza because we knew where all the plates were.

We said our goodbyes and thank you’s to them and me and Phil started to assemble our new bed frame. And thank fuck for Ikea bed frames being literally the easiest things to put together because that meant we spent less time making the bed and more time using it. 

March

March is possibly my favorite month. It’s mine and Phil’s anniversary, we’re going on vacation to Florida with his family over half term, and the check list this month only has 2 things on it. 1. Book the hotel for the day and night of the wedding. 2. Plan and book the Honeymoon. I’m fricken zazzed.

Tem loves the new house. He stayed with Lou and Darcy until we had completely settled in so that way we wouldn’t have to worry about not keeping an eye on him. Now that he’s here it actually feels like a house and we feel like a family.

I wake up every day and make breakfast for me and Phil and then I pour Tem his bowl of food and we all eat in the kitchen together. Then I kiss Phil on the cheek and head out to the Uber waiting to take me to work.

We used to live close enough to the school that I could walk or Louise would pick me up on the way, and I can drive but I just prefer not to. Maybe I’ll buy a car and start driving, I mean we do have a huge driveway and garage that we aren’t using.

Louise has been so busy working on her book that all her free time has been spent on it and not with me. She has to have the second edit of the book done by next week which means she’ll be extra busy but she’s making some room to be with me after school today.

“So you know how Liam and I have been together for like 6 months?” she asks in the car, not even halfway back to her place.

“Yeah, you remind me every few days.”

“Well we’re going to get married.” She says calmly.

“When did this happen?” I asked, completely shocked.

“We decided it would be smart to get married seeing as we’re having a baby in July.” She drops another bomb on me.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me?” I half shout at her, and then I start to cry a little bit. “I wasn’t going to say anything but you do look bigger.”

She chuckles sarcastically. “Thanks. I thought I did too, and then I remembered I hadn’t gotten my period in a while but I was too busy to realize that.”

“I can’t believe Darcy’s going to be a big sister.” And then it hits me, there’s going to be another little Lou running around and they’ll get to come to my wedding. “Do they make suits and dresses for newborns?”

“I think they might. And we’ll need a suit. I’m having a boy.”

“Do you have any more surprises? Are you going to be the first person to give birth in space? Holy fuck man.”

“No that’s all.”

-

Our anniversary is actually unknown as we had no idea the day we actually started dating. So we decided to celebrate on the day of our first date, March 13th. It’s hard to believe that one year ago I met the love of my life.

To celebrate Phil and I order pizza and rent “Get Out”. People have always said we’re like an old married couple so why not live up to that expectation? I’d rather spend time cuddled up with him and Temmie on the couch than in some fancy restaurant eating really small portions of food and yelling in order to hear each other.

Get Out is just as scary the second time around. I find myself buried into Phil’s chest more times than I can count and he’s rubbing my leg in order to calm me down, but I still fucking love the movie.

Once it’s over, we make Tem move to his bed, and we move to ours. “Can you believe that we had the best sex of our lives a year ago today?” I say pushing him up against the bedroom wall as soon as we get through the door.

“I thought the best sex was right after you found out I was going to propose?” he questions me, his breath hot against my neck.

“Oh yeah” I almost moan as he starts to kiss my neck. “wanna outdo ourselves once more?” I ask.

“Fuck yeah I do.” He kisses me hard, then he pulls away, “I’ll be right back!” he announces as he runs out of the room and down the hall.

I take the opportunity to light some candles and set the mood. He reenters the room with a pink bag that has a bow on it.

“Oh god. What is that?” I ask hesitantly.

“Open it and find out.” He says, placing the bag on the bed and then proceeding to remove all his clothes.

Inside the bag are some beautiful black lace panties and matching thigh high stockings.  
“Lester you kinky fuck.” I say picking up the contents of the bag and making my way to the bathroom so I can get changed and surprise him. He smacks my ass as I make my way past him, he’s already completely naked.

They fit perfectly. I’ve never felt more beautiful in my whole life. Who knew I was into wearing lingerie? The lace hugs my ass like it was meant just for me, the stockings stretch up my incredibly long legs, and all my hickies from the sex we had the other day are still visible. I look so fucking good.

As I enter the room, I decide it would be sexy to lean against the door frame and seductively touch my finger to my mouth and wink at Phil who’s lying spread out on the bed. He lets out a groan full of sexual frustration as his cock lies achingly hard on his stomach.

I make my way to the bed, crawl onto it and straddle his hips, making sure to rub down slowly and softly across his dick. He moans and tips his head back and I make it my mission to give his neck and collarbones as much attention with my mouth as possible.

He reaches his hands inside my panties and starts to play with my ass cheeks, stretching them apart, squeezing and slapping them. He pulls one hand off to reach over to the lube he’s set on the table beside us. He starts to work me open while I leave the millionth hickey on his neck.

By the time he’s got the third finger in, I can’t take it anymore. My cock is leaking through the fabric of the panties, and I need him in me now. “Fuck me.” I whisper against his neck.

I sit up a little further, resting my head against his. He slips my panties to the side and slides himself in slowly. We’ve had sex hundreds of times in the last year but every time I’m still amazed at how full he makes me feel. They don’t call him AmazingPhil for nothing.

He bottoms out and doesn’t move for a few seconds. Desperately I start to rock my hips forward, he bites his lip and looks me dead in the eyes. We keep eye contact while I slowly ride his cock. It’s almost like a staring contest. I move my hands down his chest and start to play with his nipples. He throws his head back and moans again.

“I win” I gloat.

With that he starts to thrust into me harder. “F-fuck Phil” he keeps thrusting into me, “I- I’m close!” I warn him.

He reaches into my panties again to stroke my neglected cock. “Come for me baby” his sexy fucking voice is enough to make me come. “You’re so beautiful when you come for me.”

That sends me over the edge, pleasure taking over my whole body, come shooting from my cock and down Phil’s hand. Stretching my back out and grinding down against him, pushing him in further sends him into his orgasm, “Fuck baby, fuck I’m coming.” He says before filling me up.

I grind down a few more times until I know he’s done, and then I pull off him and lie down on his chest. I let out a long huff. “Holy fuck, I love you.” I say, playing with his cute chest hairs.

“I love you too” he says kissing my forehead. 

-

“So where do you want to go for our Honeymoon?” Phil says, right before shoving a spoonful of my cereal into his mouth.

“Japan or Jamaica” I suggest, reaching up to grab a class from our new sleek black cupboards, that I still can’t believe are ours.

He chuckles, “Those two places are very different.”

“Well, we’ve always wanted to go to Japan but I also really want to go to a beach and relax.”

“We’re literally going to a beach for a week next week.” He reminds me, “I think Japan will be a good place to go. It’s cultured and different.” He looks at me with puppy dog eyes.

“Fine,” I try to sound angry. “I’ll book it later.” I say with a smile.

-

“I think I packed too much for Florida.” I say while dragging my bag off the luggage carousel in the Orlando International Airport.

“Yes dear, I think you did.” Phil’s mum says and pats me on the back.

Being with all the Lesters is amazing. Phil’s mum is possibly the sweetest lady in the whole wide world. I always wondered where Phil got his charm and wit, but once I met her all my questions were answered. They are like the same person, and I imagine if Phil wasn’t always dying his hair they would look like the same person as well.

I wish my dad was like Phil’s dad. I’ve heard countless stories of how cool and accepting he is. When Phil wanted to start dying his hair and all the kids thought it was gay, Phil’s dad was the first one to stand up for him. When Phil got his first crush on a boy, his dad researched how to give him ‘the talk’ but about boys. And then when Phil went to him saying he wanted to marry me and spend the rest of his life with me, his dad only asked how many grandkids we were going to give him. He is possibly the best dad in the world.

This week the Lesters have planned for us all to do a bunch of activities, but for right now we’re all going to go back to the big beach house they’ve rented and have a nap because flying is exhausting.

The whole house has this barely lived in feel. Like, you know it’s more lived in than a hotel but not as lived in as a house, so all the furniture has bumps in it and the shelves have dust on them. It’s kind of creepy.

But the creepiest part of all is the collection of dolls that just so happen to be in our room. Phil’s parents get the biggest room, of course. Martyn and Cornelia got the room that connects to the bathroom for her million and one bathroom trips. Meaning Phil and I got the small creepy room. This is going to be fun.

“If I end up crawling into bed with you guys it’s not my fault.” Phil jokes with his brother around the dinner table that night.

“You’re literally a millionaire Phil. If it creeps you out so much go stay somewhere else.” Martyn shoots back.

“It’s called a family vacation for a reason, shut up and enjoy it.” Phil’s mom says, reaching over them to place the pizza on the table.

“Cath’s not taking shit from anyone today.” I manage to say.

“I certainly am not. Now eat up.”

Our week included Mini Golf, where Phil aka ‘Tiger Lester’ completely annihilated the competition. I had no idea someone could get that many balls to fly from the course and into the lake or parking lot.

Gatorland was by far my favorite part. There were so many amazing animals to both feed and fear. Phil got attacked by a squirrel, and I almost peed my pants laughing at him. He went to feed it a peanut and it leaped forward and bit his finger. Luckily we got our rabies shots before we came, but if he starts foaming at the mouth in the next few days we’re fucked.

In the gift shop we went a little overboard. And by “we” I mean me. I bought almost one of everything. I got this awesome jean hat that has “GATERLAND” written in gems and other sparkles all over it. Then I got the classic Gaterland t-shirt with the 3 wolf moon aesthetic, I’m living for it. I’m going to wear them everywhere and embarrass Phil. Maybe I can even wear it to the wedding, Gaterland hats instead of veils are a new fashion trend I’m starting.

We spent a handful of hours at the beach. I hate the sand, and the sun, and taking my shirt off, so the beach really isn’t my thing. But it was the only place we could get some privacy.

Being in a house full of people all in close proximity isn’t a good thing when your boyfriend is insanely hot and you haven’t had sex in almost a week. So obviously I needed to find a place we could sneak off to and do it.

When we rented the house it came with all hour’s access to a few pools on the stretch of beach. So clearly this was the best place where we could sneak off to. We told everyone we were going for a beach walk, grabbed a backpack with all the essentials like 2 towels, a bottle of wine and 2 glasses, and some lube. Nothing too inconspicuous.

It was nice. We were down there from 1am till 4am, we debated staying to watch the sunrise but we knew we had to go to sleep at some point.

When we got back we tried to sneak in through the back sliding door as quietly as possible and tip toe through the kitchen to our room. However, that was also the time Martyn got out of bed to get a drink and Cornelia had to go to the bathroom.

“Oh look Corny, he’s not hobbling too badly. The water must have been really nice to them.” Martyn says with a smirk before taking a sip of water.

Phil’s gone completely red at this point.

“I’ll have you know I topped tonight. And at least one of us is getting some action.” I reply grabbing Phil by the hem of his shirt, dragging him forward. Martyn almost spits his water half way across the room and Phil suddenly doesn’t know how to speak English.

Back in our room Phil just stared at the ceiling for a few minutes. “I’m never going to live this down.” His face is still red from embarrassment.

“Don’t worry, they’ll get over it.”

They didn’t get over it. Breakfast was awkward. The Lester boys didn’t look each other in the eyes and Catherine kept asking what was wrong. We weren’t going to tell her until Cornelia had enough with it and said: “We caught Dip and Plop sneaking in last night at 4am after they snuck out to have sex at the beach.”

“Dip and Plop, those are different nicknames.” Was all she could reply with, and it wasn’t brought up again. 

April

April means we have 6 months to go. That’s fucking scary, but also really exciting! This month’s checklist includes ordering invitations, making the guest list, booking the limo, getting the rings, and because we didn’t do it last month we have to get the hotel for the day and night of as well.

For the hotel we wanted a room each for the day so we could get ready. But then we wanted a room together for the night of… So we got a hotel close to the town hall for the morning. It’ll be hard not to see him for the few hours leading up to the wedding, but I’m sure we’ll be fine. And then the Brewery has an inn attached to it so we ended up getting the honeymoon room. It has a king sized bed and soft silk sheets, Phil and I probably aren’t sleeping that night.

Getting the rings was a challenge. We both wanted to get them together but we could never find the time. Between myself working all week and Phil doing YouTube things with his brother, we haven’t been able to do it. So we decided to go on our own time and get one for each other.

I went out and got Phil a plain gold band, I debated having a saying carved into it but I couldn’t think of anything good enough to be on it for the rest of our lives. Then Phil ended up getting mine while he was in Florida again for Playlist Live. There was a little jewellery place beside one of the places him and PJ went for dinner, so he snuck in and bought one.

It was weird living alone for 5 days while he was away. It consisted of me ordering dinner every night, staying up late to tell him I loved him before we both went to bed, and I wore a lot of his shirts to work that week so I could smell like him.

Spending a week away was just what we needed to really cement the fact we want to spend the rest of our lives together. When he came back we spent a whole day together, I don’t think I even went to the bathroom alone, we missed each other so much.

The ring he got me was also gold, but only on the inside. He knew I would want my band to match my engagement ring, so the outside is black just like it. It’s really cool and original. He gets me and I love that.

Planning the invitations was a challenge. Phil and I had some very different ideas of what we wanted to do. I wanted something simple and cute, he wanted something standout-ish. So we met in the middle and decided to make something original. We called up Peej to see if he could come take some photos of us that we could edit and send out ourselves. We ordered a bunch of envelopes and card stock and got to work.

“PJ’s coming over tomorrow for the photos.” Phil reminds me. “Are you sure this is what you want them to look like?”

I planned to have the photos look like they were done in a photo booth and have them done up against the white walls in one of the spare bedrooms. The 4 photos will end up being both dorky and cute, just like us.

“Yeah, I think they’ll be cute. Do you not like the idea?”

“Oh no, I love it, it’s just this is the 6th idea you’ve had and I want you to be sure.”

“I’m sure.”

-

The photos ended up looking amazing, Phil convinced me to keep my hair curly and I convinced him to keep his glasses on. I wore a plain black shirt, he wore red. We got as close as possible, stuck our tongues out in one, kissed in another, and then by accident PJ got one of us looking lovingly in each other’s eyes. It ended up being my favorite one. I might have it framed and hung in the lounge.

We put all 4 together and edited “You’re Invited” in the middle on a white strip. On the back we had all our information about the day. Then for the RSVP we took the one of us looking at each other and turned it into a postcard they could send back easily. 

-

We decided against a limo for the drive from the Town Hall to the Brewery, instead we rented a white Range Rover for the two of us. 

Sitting down and making the guest list was a hoot. We grabbed a notebook and a pen and wrote down every single person who is important to us. Remembering all these people also brought out funny stories we had about them. For example Phil wanted to invite his great aunt Louise who one time got food poisoning at a Chinese food place and shit up a wall. No joke. We both laughed so hard that I honestly thought I was going to shit myself.

May

The first thing I did in May was mail out the invitations. This way everyone had enough time to set October 2nd in their calendars and mail the RSVP’s back. Hopefully I’ll have them all back by July so I can inform the caterer how many meals we will need. 

Phil and I were awakened at 2am to a distressed call from Martyn. Cornelia had gone into labour 2 weeks early and he needed some support. I’ve never seen someone jump out of bed and put pants on so quickly in my entire life. 

We hopped in an Uber and rushed to the hospital, I checked my phone on the way over and saw that it was May 4th. Only Martyn and Cornelia would be dorky enough to have a baby on Star Wars day. 

They didn’t want to find out what the gender of the baby was because they didn’t really care, as long as it was healthy. It’s a common thing parents say but they truly didn’t mind what type of person their child was or wanted to be. Boy, girl, or non-binary, they were content because they loved their child.

We sat in the waiting room for 3 hours, Cornelia was almost ready to push at 6am, Phil’s parents had just gotten to the hospital and Cornelia’s were on a plane over from Sweden. Catherine went in and held her hand while she pushed, while Phil’s dad stayed in the waiting room with us. 

Martyn came out at 7:06, with tear stained cheeks, dressed in a blue hospital gown to inform us that he was the proud father of a little girl named Amelia Lester. They didn’t plan it but her nickname is Leia, just like the Princess. 

We were allowed to come see her after she was all cleaned and fed. Having been around babies and children most of my life I was pretty accustomed to how cute and amazing they were. But Phil on the other hand, he was completely astounded by the beauty of his niece. Phil cried, making this the 3rd time I’ve ever seen him do so. 

Seeing him hold her was something I’ll never forget. She was all of 5lbs, she was so tiny in his big arms. He held her so close, his eyes were glossy, and the smile on his face was brighter than the sun. He just looked at her and took it all in, he was completely in love.

It wasn’t until I held her that he said anything. “That’s it. I want one.”

We all turned our heads to look at him. “What?” his father asked.

“Seeing the love of my life holding such an amazing little person makes me want to have a baby.” Again we all looked at him in shock. “I mean I know I can’t have a baby, and neither can Dan, but I want to raise a child with you.”

“Okay,” was all I could say. 

We’ve talked about the possibility of having children one day, I’ve told him I want 2 or 3, he’s said he wants whatever I want. And I’ve cried to him a few times about how badly I want to be a good parent one day. Whether it’s because of how shit my parents were or how I see some of the kids in my class treated, I just know I want our kids to be happy and loved for their whole lives.

-

“So,” I take a pause. “You want a baby?” I ask him on our way home. 

“Well yeah, I think I’d like one whenever you’re ready.” He says with a smile and gives my knee a quick squeeze.

I don't know when I’ll be ready. 

-

Louise’s book was completely done and sent to the printers in the middle of April. Wilde like Me was ready to hit stores in June, and she was going to be ready to pop in July. Meaning the only time we could celebrate the book was now. She wanted to be able to enjoy herself before she got too big.

Her publishers hooked her up with a huge dinner and a party and completely covered the whole cost. Phil plugged her book to his subscribers and a few of his other YouTuber friends who were mums and the book pre-sales were through the roof!

New York Times was even predicting for it to become a best seller. Louise was the happiest she’d ever been, actually when she had Darcy that’s the happiest she’d ever been, but she was pretty happy.

I pulled her aside while we were at her party, Phil had gone to the bathroom giving me a chance to tell her what he had said a few nights before. 

“Lou, Phil wants a baby.” 

“You can have this one. I’m tired of being pregnant. I want a drink so bad right now.” she complained before taking a sip of her water.

“Lou I’m serious. He wants to start a family soon, and so do I, but that's fucking terrifying.” 

“Matt and I got pregnant on our wedding night, and it was the best thing that ever happened to me. Maybe it would be good for you guys too.” she suggests. 

“I guess.”

“Are you going to adopt or have a surrogate?” she asks and I shake my head. I have no idea what we want to do. We’ve never talked about that part. “Because when I’m done cooking little James here I’ll have some space to help you guys out.”

It took a moment to register what she had said, “You’d seriously do that for us?” I asked.

“Yes. You’re both my best friends and I don’t plan on using my womb for any more of my own babies. It’s all yours.” I don't even reply. I just hug her and that's when Phil comes back from the bathroom.

“Oh we’re hugging.” he says and joins us. Then Darcy comes running over to join the hug, and then Liam. The five of us laughing and hugging looking like complete dorks in the middle of a restaurant filled with family, friends and Louise's publishers. 

June

June is my birthday month, it’s also the month in which we have to pick our first dance song, decide on the decoration theme, buy the cake topper, and create a gift registry.

For the gift registry we don’t really need anything. I already had most appliances and house wormy things, so the registry ended up being mainly empty. We told people to just get us something they would like.

I went to a wedding where they asked for that and I brought them a gift basket full of my favorite movies, microwave popcorn and 2 gift vouchers for the cinema. Hopefully our guests are that creative with us.

Phil and I searched the internet for hours trying to find the perfect cake topper, I never thought finding a topper with 2 grooms on it would be this hard but it was. As it turns out Phil has a friend called Bryony who is really good at making dolls and figurines so we hired her to make two that look like us. And on top of that we bought a small sign that says Mr. and Mr. to slide in the cake as well.

Choosing the perfect first dance song was simple. I wanted Perfect by Ed Sheeran.

“Why do you love that song so much?” Phil asked me after I essentially picked it without consulting him.

“It came out shortly after we met, and as I fell in love with you it started to fit more and more with how I felt about you.”

“I love you.” He said and gave me a kiss.

-

“So my birthday’s coming up.” I say cheekily tapping Phil on the shoulder a bunch of times.

“Oh really? I had no idea.” He pretends to be shocked.

“What are we doing for it?”

“I was thinking dinner and a movie? And a plane ride to Vidcon again.” Shit, I knew that was happening. He told me a few months ago.

“Oh, shit I forgot. I’m sorry.”

He grabs my hand. “It’s okay. You’ve been a bit frazzled with wedding planning, and with work. Don’t worry babe.”

-

When I called the Brewery to confirm the theme we had a bit of a problem. I wanted plain white tablecloths with some lace on the edges, and I wanted all the accents to be in gold, black and burgundy. Black and gold are like my aesthetic but burgundy was a good fall color and Phil looked amazing in it.

They said they would see what they could do but because I was pulling ideas from different themes it would be more expensive. Their logic is that if I want something from different themes I should have to buy each theme and set up myself. But how am I to set up if I’m getting ready all morning and then getting fucking married at 4pm?

The phone call was heated, Phil wasn’t home to calm me down, and I almost called the whole thing off. Eventually I settled for paying for the three themes to pick from and they gave me a discount to rent the brewery out the day before so I could come set up. I need a break and about 16 margaritas.

-

The plane to Vidcon was exactly like last year. We sat with PJ and Sophie, Phil played eye spy, and I didn’t get any sleep. The only difference was Martyn came with us to run the AmazingPhilShop booth, and he was pretty upset the whole time because he didn’t like being away from Leia. But she was probably going to be fine with Cornelia and they were watching Temmie, so she was in baby heaven.

When we signed into the convention I got a name-tag that said ‘Dan Lester – Husband of AmazingPhil’ with all access to everything. With Phil being the king of YouTube and adored by all, it had a lot of perks.

I was actually asked to sit in on a panel this year. It was called ‘the spouses of YouTube’ and it consisted of myself, Sophie, and some daily Youtubers. It was cool. We talked about privacy and respect, 2 things that are hard to come by when being with a Youtuber.

“I’m lucky enough that the majority of Phil’s fans are respectful. I have had a run in with some people who think it is their right to know everything about me and my family just because I allow Phil to include me in his videos.” I paused and let out a long breath. It aggravated me a little bit. 

“I am a really private person, so when I got into this relationship I was surprised at how willing I was to share. Phil is a huge part of my life and I am a huge part of his, so documenting our love on the internet has been a way for us to have a keep sake but also, as some people have told me, it’s a way for people to see a positive type of love and use it as a learning point. Phil and I don’t hide anything, we’ve talked about the little fights we have and we discuss that it’s not always perfect and I feel like people need to see that in the world. I know if I had that type of influence I would have realized the level of love I deserved a long time ago and I would have avoided so many heart breaks.” I received a lot of applause from that comment.

Phil’s panel was the same as last year, but this time his good friend John was with him. John was his first ever subscriber, and the first person to ever give him the push to do something greater with his life. After the panel Phil actually asked John if he would be one of his groomsmen, to which he agreed.

I already had Louise as my Maid of Honour but I needed another 2 bridesmaids to match Phil’s 3 groomsmen. So I asked Connor if he would like to as he was the person who gave me the confidence to come out, and I joked that I was going to ask Kanye to be my 3rd but Phil just pretended he didn’t hear it. I’ll probably just end up getting Cornelia to be my 3rd, I like her a lot more than any other person, she’s like a cool older sister to me.

Vidcon meant we also had the possibility of running into Julian, who was obsessed with us. He kept tweeting about what I had said at my panel, he was tweeting about where his invite was, and multiple people said he was looking for us.

Again I saw him at a pool, only this time it was at a rooftop pool party on the Sunday night. He didn’t notice me, so as I walked passed him I “tripped” and down he went, into the pool. Everyone cheered and I just smiled saying “oh I’m sorry, didn’t see you there.” I think he got the hint.

-

I wondered why we were staying for a whole week opposed to just for the weekend. It turned out Phil had set up a dinner with a bunch of our friends at benihana’s for my birthday on Monday and he had set up a surprise for me for Wednesday night.

Tuesday was spent in the hotel room, with endless room service, and continuous nakedness. Everyone had left so we had no obligations to see anyone. It was amazing. Phil joked that his gift to me was an orgasm for every year of my life but we gave up around 6.

Wednesday morning Phil took me to a shop to buy whatever suit I wanted because he was taking me to the LA premiere of Jurassic World 2. Universal Pictures invited Phil to interview Chris Pratt meaning we got to go down another red carpet together.

I opted for just a plain black suit and he went for a metallic-y blue one. We looked fresh as fuck, even though Phil told me to stop saying that.

Chris was actually super funny and kind, him and Phil had a good conversation about dinosaurs and I sat back behind the camera watching. Phil was totally in his element, maybe he’ll do more interviews in the future.

July

July is baby month. Louise is about ready to pop and her doctors aren’t sure when little James was exactly conceived, plus his growth was always different, meaning he could be born at any time in July.

To take her mind of things Phil and I took Louise to go baby shopping. The shops were filled with little tiny outfits and toys, the cribs were so cute, and more than anything I wanted a baby.

After Louise offered to have a baby for us we seriously considered when we wanted to have one. So far we have had our dog Temmie for 8 months, and we’ve managed to keep him alive and healthy. He’s Phil’s second best friend, they do a lot together and I feel like Phil would be the same if we had a baby.

I would probably take a paternity leave, and with Phil working from home it would be easy. After shopping with Louise I think I’m ready to have a baby.

“Hey Phil!” I called through the house to find him.

“I’m in my office!” he yelled back.

He was sitting in his red beanbag playing on his DS with Temmie curled up in his lap. “Hey babe what’s up?” he asked when he saw me in the doorway

“I’ve been thinking.”

“Uh oh,” Phil cut me off.

“I think I want a baby.” I blurted out. “There’s an egg donor clinic in London and I emailed them about wanting to see a catalogue of possible donors and they are mailing one to us.”

“Okay.” He says, he’s completely calm. It’s as if I didn’t just drop the ‘I’m planning on having a baby with you’ bomb. “Who’s going to be the father?”

“Well that’s the hard part. I was thinking if we find a donor who’s a lot like me we’d use you, but if there’s a donor like you, I’ll do it.”

“When does the catalogue get here?”

It was that simple. We didn’t need a long conversation, we both knew what we wanted and we were going to have a baby. There is going to be a little Lester running around this house in the next year.

-

Louise went into labour on July 22nd. Which was inconvenient because that was also the day Phil and I were meeting with the caterer to finalise everything. We had 187 guests, 180 of them and the 2 of us were having the Sunday Roast and the other 7 had opted to have the Vegan prepared meal the caterer suggested. And then for our pizza bar we picked 3 of every pizza to come out at 11pm. We had just finished our meeting when we got the call.

Liam was out of town, Matt was on vacation, and Darcy was with Louise on her way to the hospital. Phil and I hopped in an uber as fast as we could and rushed to the hospital. This was becoming an ongoing thing.

When we got there Phil stayed with Darcy in the waiting room and I went in with Lou. She was 9cm dilated and almost ready to push. Liam was 3 hours away, in Manchester of all places, so when the time came for her to push I was the one in there holding her hand, wiping the sweat from her forehead and telling her everything would be okay. 

James arrived after 3 pushes and was 8lbs, just slightly smaller than Darcy was. He was beautiful. I was amazed that such a wonderful little person was created from my equally wonderful best friend. Once again I was Uncle Dan, and once again Phil really wanted a baby of his own.

-

Phil and I sat down at the breakfast bar with a package of multi-colored sticky notes and a catalogue full of woman who could be the potential mother of our child. Pink sticky notes were for ones who were cool, green were for ones that were like Phil, and orange were for ones that were like me.

We had looked through the whole book, placed 17 pink notes, and were ready to give up hope of finding the perfect match to one of us, when we came across the last page.

It was of a beautiful woman named May who was 21, had one child of her own and was willing to help create a beautiful family for anyone who wanted her help. She was incredibly smart, she had high marks in high school and went to University for English like Phil did. Although she looked a lot like me, she had naturally brown curly hair, she was tall, and she had freckles and a dimple in the exact same spot as mine. The only difference being her greenish gold eyes compared to my brown ones.

I have a brief understanding of how biology works, meaning I know that if Phil and I had been able to have our own baby they would have ended up with green eyes anyway. She was perfect.

We put an orange sticky note on her page and removed every other note from the book. We found our match. Now we just had to meet her.

August

One thing I forgot to do during all this planning was to re-apply to the school board for my regular position. I’ve worked at St. Mary’s for 4 years, and every 2 years I’m supposed to reapply until they want to give me a longer contract.

So when I got a phone call from the Board of Education wondering what I was planning on doing next term, I felt like an idiot. I hadn’t set anything up, I hadn’t redone my resume, and I wasn’t going to.

After I got off the phone Phil and I decided it would be okay for me to not work anymore. Phil had completely paid off our mortgage, we didn’t have any debt, the wedding was completely pre-paid for, and Phil made some pretty good extra money.

We we’re completely free to do whatever we wanted. This also gave me the chance to start up my own channel on YouTube. The Dan Lester channel is going to consist of funny anecdotes, support videos, and random chats. Everything I basically do when I’m in one of Phil’s videos, just with my own little twist.

-

The seating plan was the only project for August. And it was the last real thing we had to do, and instead of doing it we decided to just make a sign telling people to sit anywhere and go from there. It’s a wedding, our families are becoming one, why not all get to know each other?

-

Louise ended up back in the hospital a week after having James, it turns out that her placenta didn’t detach properly and it cause some problems with her uterus. She called me in tears, she probably wouldn’t be able to have a baby for us one day. I told her it was okay, and that we’ll still have a baby some day, but she was still upset.

I spent a lot of time with Darcy and James over the next few days while Louise and Liam were in and out of the hospital. James was the best baby and Darcy was such a good helper. He fed perfectly, napped when I put him down, and didn’t cry unless he was gassy; which wasn’t often.

Louise was very grateful when she finally came home, but honestly I was more than willing to help her. She is like my sister, I love her more than anything, and these kids are my family. I will help her with whatever she needs as long as I’m alive.

-

Our meeting with May happened near the end of August. We hadn’t told anyone that we wanted to have a baby, so this meeting was disguised as meeting Phil’s old friend from university if anyone saw us.

We met at Starbucks in London, she was already inside; she was actually in the same seat where I first saw Phil, It must have been a sign.

She was funny and kind and a little sarcastic, all the things Phil describes me as. May has a daughter named Margret, she is a single mom, and she is also asexual. She always wanted a family, and she’s always wanted to help other people have a family as well. She also offered to have the baby for us if we wanted, and without thinking we took her up on the offer.

She gave us the information of her doctor and told us we could make an appointment to inseminate next month as she was just finishing a cycle now, she asked if it was too soon, but honestly it wasn’t, we are ready.

September

Phil and I couldn’t sleep the night before we were supposed to make the donation for the baby. One of the things we knew would have to happen was that Phil would have to whack into a cup. One of the things we didn’t know was that it was preferred that he didn’t ejaculate for up to 2 weeks before the day of donation.

It was the hardest 2 weeks of our relationship. Both literally and metaphorically. I felt bad that I could get off while he couldn’t, so I didn’t the whole two weeks he wasn’t able to. A stiff wind could turn either of us on, it was terrible.

We just laid in bed at 6am, waiting until we had to get up at 8 for our appointment that was at 10. Normally if we had 2 hours to blow that’s exactly what we’d be doing, but we still couldn’t. Instead we discussed baby names.

I knew from a really young age that I would want to have a little girl one day. And Phil always thought if he had a little girl her name would be Emily. But his high school friend named his daughter that and we didn’t want to copy him. Another name we liked was Penelope Louise Lester. That one seemed perfect.

For a little boy Phil threw out names like Thor and Zack “but with 2 c’s because he’ll seem edgy and no one will pick on him.” Phil claimed. Some names he liked that were actually really good were Jeremiah and Zander, like the character from Buffy.

“All I’m saying is I genuinely hope when the time comes we have an actual good boy name picked.” I said, being completely fed up with Phil’s suggestions.

“What if we end up having 3 girls one day?” Phil said, he seemed worried.

“We can handle anything. Don’t worry.” I said before getting up to get ready for our appointment.

-

The doctor’s office was all white, and smelled clean, and was full of woman. We were the only men there, seeing as it was an OBGYN office and neither of us had vaginas, it was awkward. 

When they called us into the room the nurse walked us through what we had to do, I thought it would just be Phil in the room but boy was I wrong.

“So here’s the cup. We want 10ml so take as long as you need.” She handed Phil the cup. “There’s magazines, and the TV has a whole selection of channels for whatever you’re into. You can stay and help as well if you want. Have fun.” She said before leaving the room.

“Okay.” I said and let out a deep breath. “Take your pants off Lester.”

He took his pants off and sat down on the plastic covered chair in the corner of the room. We didn’t need magazines or porn when we have each other. It took .5 seconds for Phil to get hard, I honestly think he was hard when we got here.

“How do you want to do this?” I asked.

“Come sit beside me and we can do it at the same time. I’ll go by faster if I can see you getting off.”

“Oh how romantic, make some room then.” I took my pants off and threw them on the floor next to Phil’s, grabbed the small bottle of lube from the counter and the box of tissues and joined Phil. He threw his leg over mine, I squeezed some lube onto both of us and we got to work.

It didn’t take long for me to finish. I was used to getting off so often that having 2 weeks go by meant I came within a few minutes. And because of all the noises I made it didn’t take long for Phil to finish either.

“I’m close” Phil warned, I grabbed the cup from him and lined him up with it. He shot his load into it and fell back into the chair. I laughed when i saw that one load filled 15ml. Phil’s always been an overachiever. 

I placed the lid back on the cup and fell back onto him. In between harsh breaths Phil giggled, “We’re making a baby.”

“Yeah we are.” I said before sharing a long and loving kiss with Phil.

We got up and put our clothes back on, regained our composure, grabbed the cup and walked back into the waiting room. I placed the cup labelled “Philip M. Lester” on the counter and sat back down. May was getting inseminated at 12, it was currently 11:15 and she should be getting prepped right now.

We were allowed to go in during the procedure, we sat behind her head so we didn’t see anything and I held her hand. Phil and I cried. It was emotional to know that this could be the moment our lives change forever. Sure we're getting married next month but becoming parents and bringing life into the world was such a bigger deal.

When it was done we took May out for lunch at a fish and chips place by our house and cried some more.

-

Not telling Louise that we were making a baby was really hard, I was kind of afraid to tell her. I didn’t want to make her upset for not being able to help us as well as not wanting her to be mad for keeping it a secret.

Louise, PJ, Martyn, Cornelia, Myself and Phil all got together at a wedding shop in London to finally pick our clothes for the wedding.

I knew I wanted the girls to wear burgundy dresses but we had to wait to get them fitted until both of them were comfortable enough after having their babies. The dresses were long and accentuated their chests and had three quarter length sleeves. They were beautiful.

While they tried on dresses Phil discussed the plan for the video with PJ and the playlist with Martyn to finalise exactly what we wanted for next month. I called my brother a few nights before to tell him the exact shots we wanted and where he could stand in the hall in order to get the best view.

PJ, and Martyn picked plain black suits with burgundy ties and pocket squares, they looked very nice. John and Connor would be wearing the same thing but they had a fitting for the same suit in LA a few weeks ago and are ready to go.

Phil is going to wear a 3 piece burgundy suit with a white dress shirt underneath and a black bowtie. Myself on the other hand, I am wearing white. I am the bride after all.

-

“Today we find out if we’re pregnant, and in 6 days we’re getting married.” Phil spoke softly in my ear, as we cuddled in bed.

“I know. It’s a bit surreal how fast it happened. It feels like just yesterday I met you in a Starbucks and had no idea you were gay.”

We both laughed for a few minutes and then he kissed me and it was just like the first time he ever did it. I had no idea the first time I kissed him that he would become my husband and the father of my children.

-

Sitting in the waiting room with May and Phil was the most anxious I’ve ever been in my life. I so desperately wanted for her to be pregnant but that was also terrifying.

“Lester’s? The doctor will see you now.” A nurse called.

“That was ominous.” Phil muttered in my direction. I nodded.

I don’t know why they say ‘the doctor will see you now’ when really they mean ‘go sit in this room for 15 minutes before the doctor can actually come see you.’

Dr. McCallion was a man in his 60’s, very well educated and experienced in surrogacy. He walked in with his big white coat on and a thin folder and a smile on his face.

“How are we today?” he asked with a very thick Irish accent.

“We’re good, we’ll be even better if you have some good news.” Phil replied more chipper than I’ve ever seen him react in a social environment.

“I do. You’re pregnant congratulations.” He replied.

Phil and I turned to each other, both in shock. Our mouths hung open in surprise as we lunched forward and hugged one another. Then I turned to May and hugged her as delicately as possible.

“I’m pregnant, I’m not going to break.” She laughed into the hug.

“Now her levels aren’t as high as we’d like so we’ve prescribed some Progesterone to help for the first trimester, and I have included a name of the best prenatal vitamins that you should start taking as soon as possible.” He explained to us.

Thank god May was paying attention because the excitement got to me and I blanked out the rest of the conversation. All I knew was I was going to be a dad sometime in June of next year.

October

“My baby’s getting married tomorrow!” Catherine squealed through the reception hall.

“Only if I still have ears tomorrow mum.” Phil chirped back.

“I’m sorry I’m just so excited! You’re my little boy.” She said before lunging at him for a hug.

Then she came over to give me a hug, “thank you for being so wonderful and taking care of my boy.” She whispered in my ear, and it took everything in me not to cry.

Setting up was easy. But it sucked that we had to do it ourselves. All the tables, chairs and lights were where we wanted them to be, all we had to do was add the decorations and accents.

We placed about a million and one tablecloths down, and plated every spot. Adding the correct utensils and fancy napkins. The floral centre pieces were being delivered tomorrow from Derek’s mum so that they don’t wilt by then. Everything was looking amazing.

Because we had to buy all three themes there was so many bits and pieces to choose from. I found a sign that read “Today I marry my best friend. The one I laugh with, live for and love.” And I thought that perfectly described us.

When we were finished decorating we said goodbye to the Lester’s, who were staying in the Inn attached to the reception, and went home. It was our last night as boyfriends, so we spent it the way any normal couple would; We looked through a book of paint swatches for the nursery and drank a whole bottle of wine by ourselves.

Phil and I went to bed that night incredibly excited but also really relaxed. All our hard work was paying off and soon we would be married and going to Japan for a week. Then when we came home we’d be having doctor appointments and getting ready to have a baby move in.

-

I set an alarm for 5:30am so that way I could easily crawl out of bed and escape to the hotel before Phil could see me. But I didn’t want to leave the bed. Phil was so comfortable and soft, and he smelled so fucking good. It’s going to be a rough 11 hours until I see him again.

I left a note on his bedside table, kissed Temmie on the nose and left. Louise and little James were already waiting for me outside in her car.

“Hey future Mr. Lester, are you ready?” she asked as I got in the car.

I nodded. And she drove off.

Louise and I got to the hotel and checked in at 6:45, the rest of the party was arriving at 8 to start getting ready. We had some time to kill so we decided to go get breakfast.

“I have a surprise for you.” I told her as we sat down.

“I told you not to get me a cheesy maid of honour gift.” She replied while lifting James from his car seat.

“It’s not a gift. Um, Phil and I decided to have a baby.” She was quiet for a second.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t help.” She said, trying not to cry. I think it was from all the hormones she still had going through her.

“It’s okay. We found this woman named May who donated an egg and offered to be our surrogate.”

“Oh Dan that’s fantastic!” she actually started crying this time. “When are you guys going to start the process?”

“She’s already 3 weeks along.” I said with a smile.

“Shut up!” she cried harder. “My best friend is going to be a dad oh my god!” The rest of breakfast was Louise crying into her food and telling me that if it was a girl we could have all Darcy’s old clothes.

-

At 8am the whole party came rolling in one by one. Martyn came in with Cornelia and Leia before heading back to Phil, it was really hard to know I couldn’t go see him and he was only a few doors down from me.

Then Catherine came in, and my mom and brother followed shortly, then Connor came in and we were ready. Phil texted me asking when we were telling everyone the secret, I replied saying I was ready now if he was too.

“So before we start getting ready I have an announcement for you guys.” I said, taking a glass of the Champagne that was already poured and waiting for us all.

Everyone was quiet waiting for me to continue, “Phil and I recently decided that we wanted to start a family.” Phil’s mom let out a gasp and covered her mouth.

“So we reached out to an egg donor clinic and found the perfect donor. And the same lady who donated the egg offered to carry the baby for us.” My mom started to cry.

She came up to me and gave me a hug. “Honey, that’s so great. When are you going to start trying?”

“We started trying at the beginning of September and we’re currently 3 weeks along.” I said nervously.

Everyone cheered and cried, and we could hear cheering coming from down the hall. They were all excited for the newest little Lester.

“I’d like to think we were the inspiration for this baby.” Cornelia jokes.

“Um, I think it was actually me.” Louise teased.

“It was actually both of you. Phil got baby crazy after Leia was born and then when James was born I finally decided it was time.”

“So how long have you guys been working on this?” Catherine said.

“We started the process of picking an egg in July, and didn’t find one till the end of August. I honestly don’t know how I managed to keep it a secret for so long.”

-

After everyone calmed down from the news we started to get ready. I didn’t need much done. Louise gave me a light layer of foundation to liven up my skin and she blow dried my hair the same way she did before my first date with Phil. It was a bit surreal.

Martyn and Phil’s dad came in after a little while to congratulate me and see how I was doing. Apparently Phil missed me, and I missed him a lot too. I didn’t expect to get so anxious but I did.

Louise and Cornelia looked beautiful, both their hair was curled and their makeup was flawless. Connor asked if he could wear the same color lipstick as Louise and as long as he was comfortable I didn’t mind what he did. We all looked so amazing.

Phil and I texted nonstop the whole time we got ready. I really wanted to see him but because of how superstitious he is he didn’t want to see me. I eventually convinced him that we could get blindfolded and go talk to each other.

Sure enough Phil had PJ wrap a scarf around his head for him and lead him into my hotel room. I just put on the complimentary sleep mask, and waited for him to come him.

“Your eyes better be closed Howell.” He said as he walked in.

“Technically the wedding was officially registered this morning so I am a Lester now.” I replied walking forward and reaching out for him.

Once I reached him, I clung to him like a Koala to a tree. I shoved my head into the crook of his neck and took a deep breath. I missed him so much, and I had only been away from him for a few hours.

“Are you okay?” he whispered in my ear.

“I’ll be better once we say I do and I can finally enjoy myself.”

“Me too, we have 2 more hours, don’t worry.” He squeezed me tightly once more and then he was guided back out of the room.

My brother had taken some photos of us while we were blindfolded, I was seriously tempted to look but I knew Phil would be mad, so I didn’t.

-

The next 2 hours flew by. Before we knew it we were all ready, everyone was in their places. Darcy and Temmie were dropped off and changed into their outfits, Dodie was at the piano waiting for the signal to start playing, and I was about ready to shit myself.

I am so nervous. What if I trip down the aisle? What if the rings fall off the cushion that we’ve strapped to Temmie? What if Phil doesn’t actually want to get married? Do I want to get married?

“I have too many thoughts in my head right now Lou, I need a distraction.”

“Okay,” she said, “remember the day we met up with Phil in the Café?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“Well I only invited you because I knew you guys would hit it off.” She said, “I thought maybe you’d go on a couple of dates, I never thought I’d be at your wedding trying to distract you from having an anxiety attack.”

“Well thank you. I’m really glad you invited me.” I gave her a hug and desperately tried to not crush our flowers.

I took a deep breath. “Let’s do this. Start the music.”

Louise peeked her head though the curtain, and gave the signal to Dodie, and the classic wedding march echoed through the building.

Darcy went down the aisle first, dropping red rose petals down every other step. When she was at the end we sent Temmie down with the rings. Then Connor and John walked down to join Phil, followed by Cornelia and Martyn.

Louise kissed me on the top of the head before taking PJ by the arm and making their way down.

“You can do this.” I told myself, out loud. “Phil is right at the end of the aisle and you are so close to your happily ever after.” I took a deep breath and started walking.

I looked up and there was Phil. The light from the windows was shining through perfectly onto him. The light of my life was standing there, with tears in his eyes waiting for me. I walked as calmly yet as fast as I could to him.

He grabbed my hand as I reached the end, we couldn’t stop smiling at each other. I guess I’m crying because Phil reached up and whipped a tear from my cheek.

“Are you ready to start?” our officiant asked.

“Yes,” Phil replied, his voice shaky. I nodded in response.

“Beloved family and friends, we are gathered here today to witness the marriage of Daniel James Howell and Philip Michael Lester.” The officiant started, “they have prepared their own vows for this evening. Phil, are you ready?”

“Yes I am.” Phil said, his grip on my hands got tighter and I could feel how sweaty they were.

“Growing up I always knew I wanted a husband or wife, and I knew I always wanted to make them the happiest person in the world.” His cheeky tongue smile creeping though and lightening the mood. “But I spent so much time trying to make other people happy on that quest that I forgot how to be happy myself.” God I wish I’d been able to love him sooner.

“It wasn’t until I met you that I realised that true love means being happy because the other person is also happy.” An ‘awww’ broke out in the crowd.

“You’ve made me the happiest I’ve ever been in my whole life. From the first day I saw you in the small little Starbucks I knew I was in for it. And when you agreed to go on a date with me my heart smiled and it hasn’t stopped since.” He smiles, and it’s the brightest smile I’ve ever seen escape his body. He warms my soul.

“And with that I vow to make you smile for the rest of your life. I vow to always be the one to make you happy, I vow to be the best husband in the world, and I vow to be by your side for the rest of my life. I love you Dan.” He slides the beautiful black and gold ring over my finger. And my heart drops as I realize it’s my turn.

I close my eyes and let out a long breath. “Phil. My beautiful, amazing, wonderful, Phil. I love you more than anyone in the whole entire world.

“For the first 25 years of my life I didn’t know what love looked like. I was so used to having my heart broken that I started to believe that love was only something you saw on TV. I had no idea that love came in the shape of a man who looked oddly similar to myself, who always stole my cereal, who makes the worst jokes I’ve ever heard, and who was the perfect combination of sexy and cute.

“This last year and a half that I’ve known you have been the most fun I’ve ever had. And the next however long I am blessed to spend with you are going to be equally just as good. If not better. I am so glad that you get to be my husband and the father of my children.

“I vow to always smile if it will make you happy. I vow to love you unconditionally, no matter how much you drive me crazy. And I vow to be the second best husband in the whole world because compared to you, I’m no compaction. I love you Phil Lester, and I can’t wait to love you for the rest of my life.”

With my shaking hands I managed to slip the beautiful gold band onto Phil’s gorgeous ring finger. And then bring it to my mouth for a kiss. He had tears running down his face, and I could hear muffled sniffs from all around me. I didn’t plan to have my speech be that heartfelt and sappy but it just felt right.

“In the power vested in me I now pronounce you Mr. and Mr. Lester, you may now kiss your husband.” The officiant said.

Phil softly placed his hands on both my cheeks, and I wrapped my arms around his waist and we pulled each other into a loving kiss. Even though I had just kissed him yesterday it was unlike any kiss we’ve had before. It was soft and gentle and loving. The type of kiss I will remember for the rest of my life.

When we pulled away and I was brought back to my senses, everyone was on their feet cheering. Hand in hand we turned and started to make our way back down the aisle. I came up as a Howell, and now I’m leaving as a Lester. It’s absolutely crazy.

-

Phil and I stayed behind at the hall to take some photos and record some ‘aesthetic’ shots for the video PJ is making for us. We took an assortment of photos both inside and outside the hall, my cheeks hurt from all the smiling we’ve done.

May met up with us at the town hall so we could take one special photo to display at the end of our slideshow at the reception. It was the three of us, mine and Phil’s hands making a heart over her belly and a sign that said “another Lester is joining the family June 2019”

-

We walked into the reception at 6pm and were welcomed with cheers and whistles from all our wonderful friends and family. The food wasn’t coming out until 7 so we had an hour to mingle and thank the guests for coming.

My dad never came up to see me before the wedding so he had no idea we were expecting until my mom told him on their way over. He came right up to me and gave me the biggest hug I think he’s ever given me.

“I may not have been the most supportive of your dreams while you were growing up, but you’ve become an amazing man and I know you’ll be an amazing father.” He says, still embracing me.

It breaks my heart to think that my dad thinks he wasn’t a good dad. He was a very good dad, sure he upset me on occasion and I had days and even weeks where I didn’t talk to him, but he’s my dad and I’ll always love him and be grateful for him in my life.

Countless other relatives came up and gave us hugs and congratulated us on our marriage and complimented the beauty of the whole thing. All my hard work had paid off, it was a miracle.

Phil’s YouTube friends were all sat together at one table in the back being their typical anti-social selves, instagraming and snapchatting the whole thing. We went and sat with them for a while and thanked them all for flying out from America to be with us. Mamrie, Hannah, Grace and Tyler were already a few drinks in and I could already tell they would be the life of the party later on tonight.

The food came out right on time, everyone found a seat and we dug in. The Sunday Roast was a hit, it was almost as good as Catherine’s and I made sure she knew hers was better. I’ve got to kiss up to the mother in law now and get more brownie points then Cornelia.

After dinner it was time for the family speeches and toasts. I was really dreading this bit, but it is a tradition and one day Phil and I will look back at this and love it.

First Phil’s mom made a speech:

“Phil was the happiest kid growing up, he was always making jokes and trying his hardest to spread joy throughout everyone’s lives. So when he started doing YouTube it wasn’t really a surprise. I always knew he’d spend the rest of his life making other people as happy as they could be. But as he said in his vows, along the way he lost his own happiness. As a mother all you want is for your children to be happy and content in life, and when Phil called me after his first date with Dan to say ‘mum, I met this wonderful guy and I think I want to see him every day for the rest of my life.’ I knew it was different from the last time he dated someone. Dan, you’ve come into this family and you’ve become like one of our own. We love you just as much as Phil does. And I love you because you’ve brought that wonderful happy little boy back out in Phil and I’ll always be thankful for that.” Sure enough, we all cried.

Louise was a few glasses of wine in, and seeing as she wasn’t breast feeding and Liam didn’t drink, she planned on going all out tonight.

“Daniel bloody Lester. That’s weird to say. Um, so some of you might not know but I am actually the reason we are all here today. Last March Phil moved to London and I had known him because we went to York together. So when I found out he had just moved, and that he liked men I thought ‘my best buddy Dan also likes men why not make them have coffee together and then leave a few minutes in to get Darcy?’ it was a good plan. They hit it off really well and they went on a real date the next night. And I’ll never forget coming into Dan’s apartment the next morning because he didn’t text me back to find them naked all cuddled together.” 

I understand that she’s been drinking but now the whole room is laughing and wolf whistling at us, it’s embarrassing. “They are a perfect combination when they are together, and I’m so glad that my best friend finally found the love of his life.”

My parents did the classic toast like “welcome to the family Phil we are so happy to have you” blah, blah very insincere.

Martyn on the other hand went all out.

“So Phil is my little brother, meaning everyone he dates has to meet my standards. I hated his first girlfriend Sara, she was a mess. And then there was the time I thought he was dating his best friend Ian, who I thought was pretty cool, but nothing happened there. And then that dickweed Julian came along and no matter how many times I told Phil he wasn’t a good idea he didn’t listen. The night Phil came back from coffee with Dan and a huge smile on his face I knew everything had changed. Already I liked this guy because he had managed to make Phil’s whole demeanour change. And then when Phil didn’t come home from their movie date I really knew something was different. Phil was supposed to be moving in with me when he came down from Manchester but he was with me for maybe a week before he slowly started to move all his crap into Dan’s house, and then eventually he never came home again. I met Dan and I think I fell in love with him a little too. He is so sweet and caring and kind. He cares so much about my brother, more than anyone else ever has. And I know I don’t need to worry about him hurting Phil, because they are so madly in love they are the type of couple who will be together till they’re 100, and then when they die they’ll probably go out together, peacefully in their sleep. They spent so long searching for each other that now that they have each other they are glued at the hip. I couldn’t be more grateful for Dan to be in our lives. We love you both so much. Let’s have a toast for the Lester’s!”

After the speeches it was time for our slideshow. Phil and I had put together a bunch of clips from his videos and some of our favorite photos we’d taken together, with the surprise photo at the end.

All our guests laughed and awed at the slideshow, when our picture with May came up however everyone freaked the fuck out. We had people yelling, people standing up and clapping, and Phil’s drunk aunt Caren came running to Phil to congratulate him.

“I’m not sure if some of you heard in my vows when I said I was glad he’d be the father of my children? But yeah. We’re expecting a baby on June the 7th.” I confirmed into the mic.

“Does this mean no Vidcon next year?” Tyler yelled from the back.

“Unfortunately it does, but we’ll definitely visit once the baby is here. Speaking of the baby, we’d like to give a shout out to our lovely surrogate May!” and Phil went and brought her up onto the stage. “Do you want to say anything?” I asked her.

She nodded and took the mic, “being here today and seeing this happy family come together has made me really excited to have this baby. I know Phil and Dan will be great dads, and seeing this support system they have behind them just makes it so much more special. This baby is going to be so loved, and I’m blessed to be able to help bring it into the world.”

-

The first dance was the part I was the most nervous for. Together Phil and I had 4 left feet, something was bound to go wrong. When the floor cleared for us to dance, I felt my stomach turn and I actually want to puke.

Martyn grabbed the mic to announce our dance, “Now everyone, the first dance song they picked is “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran. Some of you may know my brother has some connections at the BBC and we’ve actually managed to get a special guest here to sing the song for them.”

And sure enough, Ed Sheeran, Ginger Jesus himself, comes walking onto the stage with his guitar ready to sing our first dance song to us.

“Phil! What the fuck?” I said and shoved him, “how did you do this?”

“I’ve got connections babe. Now shut up and dance with me.” With that, he grabbed my waist and pulled me into him and started to sway to the music.

“Baby, I'm dancing in the dark with you between my arms  
Barefoot on the grass, listening to our favorite song  
When you said you looked a mess, I whispered underneath my breath  
But you heard it, darling, you look perfect tonight”

Phil sang along in my ear, I was too busy crying into his shoulder to say anything. This is the man I get to spend the rest of my life with. The man I get to wake up to every morning, and go to sleep with every night. We’re going to raise a family together, and we’re going to live a happy, long, eventful life together.

**Author's Note:**

> heres a link to a pinterest where i pinned every idea i had for the wedding and house if you want to check it out https://www.pinterest.com/emilyrees1998/  
> also shout out to my best friend @lingeriephan on tumblr for listening to me go on about my fic and reading it over for me, i dont know what i'd do with out you <3


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